“As with narrow-necked bottles; the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring out.”

Never find fault with the absent.

Learning is like mercury, one of the most powerful and excellent things in the world in skillful hands; in unskillful, the most mischievous.

For what I have publish’d, I can only hope to be pardon’d; but for what I have burned, I deserve to be prais’d.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.

Strength of mind is exercise, not rest.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!

Who dare to love their country, and be poor.

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

What is it to be wise? ‘Tis but to know how little can be known, To see all others’ faults, and feel our own.

Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man’s own eyes when they look upon his own person.

An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie; for an excuse is a lie guarded.

Beauty draws us with a single hair.

Passions are the gales of life.

Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that’s no reason not to give it.

We can never learn too much of His will towards us, too much of His messages and His advice. The Bible is His word and its study gives at once the foundation for our faith and an inspiration to battle onward in the fight against the tempter.

Keep your jacket buttoned. Always. It’s just really flattering—it will take pounds off you.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Nothing speaks like results. If you want to build the kind of credibility that connects with people, then deliver results before you deliver a message. Get out and do what you advise others to do. Communicate from experience.

I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.

When people talk to you in such glowing terms, that is the time to be very, very alert because the worst of the mistakes are made in the best of the times.

There are two things which a man should scrupulously avoid: giving advice that he would not follow, and asking advice when he is determined to pursue his own opinion.